A Little Background

Hubby's Great-Grandfather, Balthasar (don't you just love those old names?) settled on our little piece of America's Dairyland in 1879.  He started out with 10 cows.  Our children are the fifth generation to live in the very log cabin where Balthasar first lived! 

Today about 600 cows live and work on the farm.  300 of those are currently milking cows.  On average each cow produces 80 pounds, or about 9 gallons, of milk per day.  The cows are milked in a Boumatic double 8 parallel parlor three times per day starting at 4:30am, 11:30am, and 8:00pm.  The majority of milking cows are housed in a 100' x 192' freestall barn.   The remainder share a 118' x 272' freestall barn with the younger animals and dry cows.

 


 

It Shouldn't Have Happened - But It Did

The Three G's - Summer 2007

He never just came into a room.  He made an entrance.  He was his Dad's dimples and his Mom's dark brown eyes.  He was the apple of both of his Grandmother's eyes.  His dad was "Pops" and I was "Ellen".  After a couple of false starts he had decided that he wanted to be a dairy farmer, just like the four generations before him.  He had a girl that he loved and was going to marry.  He had finally pulled it all together and was looking forward to a fine future.

On October 15, 2008 he and another farm hand were getting a piece of farm equipment ready to store for the winter.  It was a chopper box, for those of you in the know about these things.  He was inside the box greasing.  It happened in an instant, and he was gone.  What I remember most about that day were the looks on the faces of every fireman and EMT who were on the scene.  He was a friend to all of those guys.  Although they are well trained for these kind of events, they still never expect it to happen to a buddy.

In the two years since we have tried to look for anything positive that has come out of our sadness.  Many a farmer has told us that they are more aware when working on equipment.  We hope they never forget.  Our nephew recently got a degree in industrial safety and works in that field.  He is, we believe, more passionate about his work now. We hope others will be positively effected by that passion.

We keep going, one day at a time.  He is always in our thoughts and in our hearts.  We love that boy!

20 Years - Who knew?

October, 1990

20 years ago today I married the man of my dreams.  We are as different as night and day.  He's a farm boy through and through, with a work ethic like no other.  I'm a city girl with a bent for procrastination.  Our friends questioned our sanity.  20 years later he still makes my heart go pit-a-pat.  He's my rock, my anchor.  There is no doubt that my life would have been a whole lot duller if I hadn't met him.  I Love this man!

Okay God, I'm listening now

For the weeks leading up to 10/10/10 I had been a little preoccupied with party planning.  Okay fine!  I was frankly obsessed with party planning.  Hubby and I had decided to have an appreciation party for all of the people we do business with, our neighbors, and our family.  We were expecting about 160 people and I wanted to make sure that everything was perfect.

Sunday was a beautiful day, I was up early doing last minute food prep and I had the kiddos running in every direction getting things packed into vehicles for transport to our machine shop where the party was going to be held.  TGC was dressed, make-up on, hair done, ready to go (a minor miracle in itself), the Big Cheese was in the shower, and G2 headed out with his truck which was loaded up.  And then it happened.  Rounding the first corner, a box sitting on his seat started to tip over.  G2 reached over to upright it and looked up just in time to see the utility pole.

G2's face hit the steering wheel and the inside of his mouth was ripped open.  I took him to the emergency room, where we had to wait for an ENT to come and evaluate the situation.  3 hours and 23 stiches later we finally were able to leave the hospital and head to the party, which had started without us.



I believe that was God tapping me on the shoulder and reminding me that perfect parties aren't all that important.  Thanks to my "angels" - G2's girlfriend and her mom, my 6 sisters-in-law, my mother-in-law and a good family friend - the party went off without a hitch.  They just all pitched in and kept things going.  I love those women!

More on the party next time.



Oh sure, they look all innocent now....

...but they weren't so innocent last night when they were cavorting out on the highway!  A friend of our's brother was heading home from his 2nd shift job when he spotted these very cows out on the road in front of our farm.  This was 1:00am!  He woke us up and together he, hubby, and I managed to herd them back where they belonged.  After 1/2 hour or so of scouting up and down the road looking for stragglers it finally occured to us that we should probably just print off a list of cows that belonged in the group and check the animals against the list.  (Remember, this was 1:00 AM and we weren't at our brightest.)  Another 15 minutes spent checking off the list - everybody accounted for - and I headed back to bed.  Nice quiet country living - humpf! 

It's all new (again)

It is tradition in our family to present each child with a calf for their 12th birthday.  Yesterday was G3's 12th birthday and here he is with "Destiny", his 10-day-old red and white holstein heifer calf.  Most people are familiar with the black and white holstein's. In these parts they're part of the landscape. However, the red and whites aren't as common and that is why he picked her.  He wanted an animal that will stand out.  Be a little unique - just like him.

Of course, competition is alive and well among the sibs and not to be outdone on the calf front, G2's cow gave birth to a heifer calf yesterday as well. So, in the spirit of giving equal time, here she is, the still un-named newborn: